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| Alex Bratty |
Alex Bratty, a best selling author, certified coach and professional speaker who can't imagine her life without Sunny. You'll have to read all of the interview to figure out who Sunny is. She's inspirational, and I'm sure you will enjoy learning more about her.
Tell me a little bit
about yourself and where you’re from and hobbies.
I was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After
high school I studied dual honors in Business Studies and French at the
University of Edinburgh in Scotland (with my junior year spent in France).
During the summers I worked for a company in Philadelphia
who ultimately offered me a full-time job upon graduation and sponsored me for
my green card. What an amazing opportunity! I grabbed it and never looked back.
Since moving to the States in 1997, I’ve lived in Philadelphia, New Jersey,
Washington DC, and now I’m out west in Las Vegas.
I used to play field hockey competitively throughout high
school and college, but a bad knee injury meant I had to hang up my cleats.
After that I got into long-distance running, and ran the Philadelphia marathon
along with other shorter distance road races. More recently, I’ve moved in a
different direction with my athletic hobbies. I hike and enjoy the beautiful
outdoors in Nevada, I practice Bikram yoga, and I’ve been learning aerial silks
for just over a year – it’s so challenging, but a LOT of fun!
Do you get to visit
Ireland (your home country) often? Do you miss it and are you thrilled that
you’re a U.S. citizen?
I try to get back across the pond every other year since my
whole family still live there and I have friendships that I’ve maintained all
these years of me being Stateside. Of course, they also come here to visit me –
especially now that I’m in Vegas!
I can honestly say that becoming a U.S. Citizen was one of
the proudest moments of my life. It took a long time and a lot of paperwork to
get there – about four years to get my green card and then a five-year waiting
period before I could apply for citizenship – so I was definitely ready for the
big day when it rolled around.
How did you decide to
become a life coach?
It was interesting and winding roads that lead me to
coaching. I was first exposed to life coaching when I hired my own coach
several years ago. I was feeling very stuck and unfulfilled in my professional
life and I knew I had some big decisions to make because I didn’t want to be
living the same overworked, overloaded life for too much longer. So I started
seeing a life coach to bring in an objective perspective and it opened up a
whole new world for me. I immersed myself in personal development books and
workshops and I started getting real clarity about what mattered most to me.
Once I made the decision to leave the firm where I had
worked for the last 11 years and been a partner for five, I began to evaluate
lots of different options for the future. I kept coming back to my desire to
help people and make a positive impact in whatever I chose to do next. I
realized I could do that by becoming a life coach so I set about getting my
training and certification. At the time
it seemed like a 180 degree turn from my 15-year career in corporate research.
But I soon realized that I was essentially taking a lot of the skills I had
honed during that time and applying them in a different way. It was fun to make
the transition and have all these little epiphanies along the way!
What’s rewarding
about being a life coach?
It’s seeing the aha moments, the breakthroughs, and the
progress my clients make as we work together. It’s a privilege to be able to
help others navigate their life challenges just as I once was coached through
mine. I know I’m making a difference in a very real and tangible way. Several
clients share a similar story to mine – they’re feeling unfulfilled and burnt
out in their careers, or stressed and overwhelmed with how much they’ve got
going on. As we work together, they’re able to get relief, clarity about what
they truly want, and a plan for how to take action to get there. I wake up every
day excited to serve my clients in the best way I can.
Your book “From Chaos
to Clarity: Getting Unstuck & Creating a Life You Love”, please tell me
about it and what inspired you to write it.
The book is essentially a roadmap for how to get unstuck.
I weave my own story through it, but it’s not a memoir or biography by any
means. It’s intended to serve the reader with practical processes and exercises
at the end of each chapter that are designed to help them get unstuck and
moving forward again.
I wrote it because so many of us get stuck at some point
in our lives. I hear it all the time, from my clients and when I’m out talking
with groups – so many people find themselves with these feelings of frustration
and anxiety about where their life is headed and they just don’t know how to
change it. Since I’ve also been in that stuck place, I wanted to write a book
that addresses the issue head-on and provide a step-by-step guide for how to
find clarity, take back control, and create a life that’s truly fulfilling and
joyful.
Who is your favorite
author and what’s your favorite book?
For non-fiction, I have to go with the classic, “You Can
Heal Your Life” by Louise Hay. This was the very first personal development
book I read on my own self-discovery journey and it had a tremendous impact. I
think I’ve read it three or four times and I always pick up something new with
each review.
When it comes to fiction, I’m a fan of detective novels, so
anything by Michael Connelly, David Sandford, Robert Crais, and David Baldacci
is a winner with me. My Kindle is packed with their books!
If you were stranded
on a desert island, what movie would you take with you to watch?
“Point Break”… Not the remake that just came out; the
original with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.
Tell me three things
about you that you want the readers to know about Alex.
1.
After many years of having no pets and no kids,
I got a Golden Retriever a year and half ago and suddenly became a “dog
person.” Her name is Sunny and I can’t
imagine life without her – she is just one big bundle of love and positive
energy.
2.
As I mentioned earlier, I used to play field
hockey at a competitive level. Over the years I managed to get a black-eye
twice – the scar from one of these incidents is still visible above my left eye
almost 25 years later! These days, I’ve chosen some less combative ways to stay
in shape, including hiking, aerial silks, and yoga (I’m still not convinced my
body can make some of the shapes…ever!)
3.
My weaknesses include devouring fries doused in
salt, malt vinegar, and ketchup as well as plowing through monster bags of salt
& vinegar chips.
Who do you look up
to?
The person I respect most in my life is my husband. He is an
amazing person, a cancer survivor, and he has accomplished so much – both
personally and professionally.
I see that your
twitter profile lists you in Las Vegas, what do you love about the city that
never sleeps?
Most people think The Strip is Las Vegas. But there’s so
much more to the city – the incredible scenery, fantastic state and national
parks, and the opportunity to be outdoors virtually all year round. The summer
months are very hot but the rest of the year is perfect for hiking and boating
– two of our favorite hobbies. There are also many terrific locations within just
a three to five hour drive: California beaches, Utah mountains, and the Grand
Canyon in Arizona. So when the weather heats up we can easily escape to cooler
climes.
Social Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexjbratty
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| Picture from Alex Bratty's Facebook page |
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| Picture from Alex Bratty's Facebook page She shares motivational and inspirational quotes on her page. |
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